Jordan Scott. (2023). I Talk Like a River. Holiday House.

Jordan Scott. 2023. I Talk Like a River. Holiday House.

Jordan Scott, I Talk Like a River. Holiday House, 2023.

Jordan Scott. I Talk Like a River. Holiday House, 2023.

OverDrive Product Record

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1. • value: family
2. • value: Stutter
3. • value: parenting
4. • value: Fathers
5. • value: stuttering
6. • value: Poetry
7. • value: poems
8. • value: Picture books
9. • value: Speech Therapy
10. • value: father son books
11. • value: books for kids 5-7
12. • value: poetry books
13. • value: dad books
14. • value: books for 4 year olds
15. • value: books for 5 year olds
16. • value: childrens books by age 5-8
17. • value: childrens books by age 6 8
18. • value: books for 4 year old boys
19. • value: books for 5 year old boys
20. • value: books for 5 year old girls
21. • value: mom books
22. • value: books for 6 year old boys
23. • value: poetry for kids
24. • value: books for 7 year old boys
25. • value: kids books ages 6-8
26. • value: kids books ages 4 8
27. • value: childrens books by age 3 5
28. • value: sound books
29. • value: speech therapy books

creators

1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: Scott, Jordan
   • bioText: Jordan Scott is a poet whose work includes Silt, Blert, DECOMP, and Night & Ox. Blert, which explores the poetics of stuttering, is the subject of two National Film Board of Canada projects, Flub and Utter: a poetic memoir of the mouth and STUTTER. Scott was the recipient of the 2018 Latner Writers' Trust Poetry Prize for his contributions to Canadian poetry. I Talk Like a River is Scott's first book for children. He lives in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island with his wife and two sons.
     Sydney Smith is an illustrator of picture books whose work includes Sidewalk Flowers by JonArno Lawson; The White Cat and the Monk by Jo Ellen Bogart; and Town Is by the Sea by Joanne Schwartz, which was awarded the 2018 Kate Greenaway Medal and the 2018 Children's Literature Award. He both wrote and illustrated Small in the City, which Kirkus Reviews called "Extraordinary, emotional, and beautifully rendered." in a starred review. School Library Journal said "The use of line, reflection, and perspective masterfully evoke a bustling gray city." in another starred review. Travis Jonker of 100 Scope Notes, a School Library Journal blog, said "Small in the City is one of my favorite books of 2019." His accolades include two Governor General's Awards for Illustrated Children's Books and four successive New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book of the Year citations.
   • name: Jordan Scott
2. • role: Illustrator
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Neal Porter Books

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2023-04-25T00:00:00-04:00

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title

I Talk Like a River

fullDescription

Winner of the Schneider Family Book Award
Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Winner

What if words got stuck in the back of your mouth whenever you tried to speak? What if they never came out the way you wanted them to?
Sometimes it takes a change of perspective to get the words flowing.
A New York Times Best Children's Book of the Year
I wake up each morning with the sounds of words all around me.
And I can't say them all . . .
When a boy who stutters feels isolated, alone, and incapable of communicating in the way he'd like, it takes a kindly father and a walk by the river to help him find his voice. Compassionate parents everywhere will instantly recognize a father's ability to reconnect a child with the world around him.
Poet Jordan Scott writes movingly in this powerful and ultimately uplifting book, based on his own experience, and masterfully illustrated by Greenaway Medalist Sydney Smith. A book for any child who feels lost, lonely, or unable to fit in.
Finalist for the BC and Yukon Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize
A Charlotte Zolotow Honor Book
An American Library Association Notable Children’s Book
ILA Primary Fiction Honoree
Named a Best Book of the Year by The Wall Street Journal, People Magazine, NPR, Kirkus Reviews, Shelf Awareness, Bookpage, School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Publishers Lunch, and more!
A Horn Book Fanfare Best Book of the Year
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
A Bank Street Best Childrens Book of the Year!
A Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year
A CBC Best Picture Book of the Year
A Kids' Book Choice Award Finalist

gradeLevels

1. • value: Grade 50
2. • value: Grade 1
3. • value: Grade 2

reviews

1. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from September 1, 2020
     

     Gr 1-4-In first-person narration about the author as a boy, this debut brings readers into the world of dysfluency, that is, stuttering. The narrator, a white boy, sits alone at the kitchen table before school, imagining how badly his day will go, and it's even worse. The letters M, P, and C bring special terrors for the garbled sounds they demand of him in a school day, when the teacher asks students to describe a favorite place. His solitude is, for readers, almost unbearable until he returns to his understanding father. He knows about a "bad speech day," and takes his son to the river. There, without many words, he explains how his son talks like the river, with ebbs and flows, a rush of sounds, emotion, and meaning streaming. The boy's dawning realization brings the story to a resonant pause, in a foldout that opens to a vast four-page spread of the sparkling waters that surround him. And then the remembrance resumes, for when he returns to school, he talks about his special place in his own manner, his dysfluency making him and his telling unique. Smith's lyrical, color-saturated paintings capture mighty nature as well as the blurred, staring faces of schoolmates, who mock and laugh but mostly do not understand the main character's inner world. An author's note, in tiny type but very personal and expressive, outlines the journey Scott has taken to make peace with himself. VERDICT By turns heartbreaking and illuminating, this picture book brings one more outsider into the fold through economy of language and an abundance of love.-Kimberly Olson Fakih, School Library Journal

     Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

2. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from July 15, 2020
     A young boy describes how it feels to stutter and how his father's words see him through "bad speech day[s]." Lyrical, painfully acute language and absorbing, atmospheric illustrations capture, with startling clarity, this school-age child's daily struggle with speech. Free verse emulates the pauses of interrupted speech while slowing down the reading, allowing the words to settle. When coupled with powerful metaphors, the effect is gut-wrenching: "The P / in pine tree / grows roots / inside my mouth / and tangles / my tongue." Dappled paintings inspire empathy as well, with amorphous scenes infused with the uncertainty that defines both the boy's unpredictable speech and his melancholy. Specificity arrives in the artwork solely at the river, where boy and father go after a particularly bad morning. Scenery comes into focus, and readers feel the boy's relief in this refuge where he can breathe deeply, be quiet, and think clearly. At this extraordinary book's center, a double gatefold shows the child wading in shimmering waters, his back to readers, his face toward sunlight. His father pulls his son close and muses that the boy "talk[s] like a river," choppy in places, churning in others, and smooth beyond. (Father and son both appear White.) Young readers will turn this complex idea over in their minds again and again. The author includes a moving autobiographical essay prompting readers to think even further about speech, sounds, communication, self-esteem, and sympathy. An astounding articulation of both what it feels like to be different and how to make peace with it. (Picture book. 4-8)

     COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

3. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from September 1, 2020
     Grades K-3 *Starred Review* A young boy awakens filled with words that make him stutter. P sounds tangle his tongue, like pine tree roots; C sticks in the back of his throat like a crow's caw; and M makes him mumble. He compensates by remaining silent, which evokes laughter in his classmates. Only Dad knows what to do. The two go to the river where Dad explains that the water moves the way the boy speaks: bubbling, churning, whirling, and crashing. Calmed, the boy is able to return to class and speak of his favorite place, the river. Scott's lyrical text speaks movingly of bad speech days and the personal trauma that results from this disability. Smith's watercolor, ink, and gouache illustrations echo the story's contemplative mood. Much of the art has a slightly gauzy, out-of-focus feel, appropriate to the quiet tone of this narrative. Blues and greens predominate (especially in the river scenes), with pink used as an accent. Those looking for a dramatic improvement in this child's disfluency may be disappointed; in real life, stuttering can persist into adulthood. Instead Scott demonstrates how a caring adult can help to diffuse anxiety, enabling a stutterer to speak in spite of disfluency. Full of reassurance and understanding, this is a much-needed look at a common language problem.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

4. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     July 1, 2020
     In this lyrical and empowering picture book, Canadian poet Scott tells a story based on his own experiences as a boy who stuttered. In simple, evocative language, he captures the isolation, social devastation, and self-doubt of a child who feels incapable of communicating his thoughts and offers an affirming way to think about difference. As the boy's dad picks him up from school one day and takes him for a walk by the river to de-stress and relax, the narrative goes beyond the calming solace found in the natural world to make a more profound comparison and connection. The man reassures his son that his speech is like a river. Using this imagery and language, the boy is able to think about his dysfluency in a new way, realizing that sometimes his speech is "bubbling, whirling, churning, and crashing"; sometimes calm and smooth, just like the ever-shifting waters of the river. Smith's (Town Is by the Sea, rev. 3/17; Small in the City, rev. 11/19) verdant and light-infused paintings pack an emotional punch and provide the perfect complement to the poet's words. The varied layouts and dazzling spreads keep the boy center stage and lovingly framed. An expressive double-page close-up of the boy's face opens to a spectacularly effective gatefold of the child in the embrace of the river's sparkling water (Smith captures the play of light on water like nobody else). I Talk like a River is not mere bibliotherapy; it is instead a meditation for all children on self-acceptance, finding one's voice, and reconsidering what is labeled as normative. An important and unforgettable offering presented with natural beauty and grace.

     (Copyright 2020 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

5. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from November 1, 2020
     In this lyrical and empowering picture book, Canadian poet Scott tells a story based on his own experiences as a boy who stuttered. In simple, evocative language, he captures the isolation, social devastation, and self-doubt of a child who feels incapable of communicating his thoughts and offers an affirming way to think about difference. As the boy's dad picks him up from school one day and takes him for a walk by the river to de-stress and relax, the narrative goes beyond the calming solace found in the natural world to make a more profound comparison and connection. The man reassures his son that his speech is like a river. Using this imagery and language, the boy is able to think about his dysfluency in a new way, realizing that sometimes his speech is "bubbling, whirling, churning, and crashing"; sometimes calm and smooth, just like the ever-shifting waters of the river. Smith's (Town Is by the Sea, rev. 3/17; Small in the City, rev. 11/19) verdant and light-infused paintings pack an emotional punch and provide the perfect complement to the poet's words. The varied layouts and dazzling spreads keep the boy center stage and lovingly framed. An expressive double-page close-up of the boy's face opens to a spectacularly effective gatefold of the child in the embrace of the river's sparkling water (Smith captures the play of light on water like nobody else). I Talk like a River is not mere bibliotherapy; it is instead a meditation for all children on self-acceptance, finding one's voice, and reconsidering what is labeled as normative. An important and unforgettable offering presented with natural beauty and grace. Luann Toth

     (Copyright 2020 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

6. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from July 13, 2020
     Sometimes a few words can transform a child’s life. In this autobiographical story by Canadian poet Scott (Night & Ox, for adults), a boy who stutters is given a new way to think about his speech. He describes words in his mouth and the anguish of his classroom: “All those eyes watching/ my lips/ twist and twirl,/ all those mouths/ giggling/ and laughing.” One “bad speech day,” his father picks him up from school and takes him to the quiet river, where they look for rocks and sit on the bank. “See how that water moves? That’s how you speak,” his father says. Following frustration-tinged spreads, Smith (Small in the City) zooms in on the boy’s face as he watches the river “bubbling, churning, whirling, and crashing.” He closes his eyes, taking in the words’ meaning, then ventures into the water, shown in a shimmering double gatefold. “This is what I like to remember,/ to help stop myself from crying/ I talk like a river.” Artwork makes the internal change a light-filled experience, an account of the moment in which the child experiences himself and his individual way of speaking as part of the great forces of the natural world. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Hilary McMahon, Westwood Creative Artists. Illustrator’s agent: Emily Van Beek, Folio Jr./Folio Literary Management.

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Winner of the Schneider Family Book Award
Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Winner

What if words got stuck in the back of your mouth whenever you tried to speak? What if they never came out the way you wanted them to?
Sometimes it takes a change of perspective to get the words flowing.
A New York Times Best Children's Book of the Year
I wake up each morning with the sounds of words all around me.
And I can't say them all . . .
When a boy who stutters feels isolated, alone, and incapable of communicating in the way he'd like, it takes a kindly father and a walk by the river to help him find his voice. Compassionate parents everywhere will instantly recognize a father's ability to reconnect a child with the world around him.
Poet Jordan Scott writes movingly in this powerful and ultimately uplifting book, based on his own experience, and masterfully illustrated by Greenaway Medalist Sydney Smith. A book for any child who feels...

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   • description: Juvenile Fiction / Family / Parents
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   • description: Juvenile Fiction / Social Themes / Self-Esteem & Self-Reliance
3. • code: JUV070000
   • description: Juvenile Fiction / Poetry